“The Less I Know The Better” Harmony and Chord Analysis

The graph shown is the chordogram for Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know The Better”, and it’s interesting to note that every “vertical column” of the diagram represents a different harmony in the background of the sun. For the first 60 seconds of the song, indicated by the first four major vertical sections, we can see pops of yellow for the F major and the B major. They correlate with the high-pitched chimes that Tame Impala inserts into the instrumentals of the song. Between seconds 70-100, the colors across all majors are very similar shades of green; this was when the chorus happened, and the instrumentals were more mellow to support the lyrics of the chorus. The last 100 seconds of the song saw a very consistent harmony.

It was also interesting to note the evolution of the C minor from the beginning to end, as it had the darkest boxes at the start and finish but got lighter during the middle.

Tempo vs. Energy vs. Valence

The two graphs portrayed provide some insight into Tame Impala’s music. Figure 1 (to the left) analyzes the ratio of tempo to energy in all of his songs, grouped by album and colored in accordingly. – ADD MORE ANALYSIS –

“The Less I Know The Better” Chromagram Analysis

This is the chromagram of Tame Impala’s biggest hit, “The Less I Know The Better”. – ADD MORE ANALYSIS –

“The Less I Know The Better” Timbre Cepstrogram Analysis

The graph to the left is a cepstrogram that represents tatums in the song “The Less I Know The Better”, calculated using the Manhattan distance. There are clear changes in multiple areas. For example, c02 goes back and forth between high magnitudes and low magnitudes. c04 and c06 both start with a relatively low magnitude, then switches to a high magnitude for the rest of the track.

The graph to the right is a self-similarity matrix.